One of the most puzzling events of Holy Week is called the cleansing of the temple. Jesus, sometime after his triumphal entry into Jerusalem (now known as Palm Sunday), visited the temple. Inside the outer court, where gentile converts and Jewish women worshipped, money changers and merchants selling sacrifices had set up shop. This had been common practice for centuries as they serviced the multitude of worshippers who had come from all over the known world to celebrate the Passover celebration.
Something happened that day that flipped the switch for Jesus. Perhaps he saw moneychangers cheating their customers as they exchanged foreign currency for the required temple currency. Maybe merchants were price gouging - overcharging worshippers using the Passover as an opportunity to line their own pockets.
Jesus exploded and turned over the tables where business was being transacted shouting, "My father's house is to be a house of prayer! But you have made it a den of thieves!" The kingdom of this world - with all it promotes and values - had found acceptance in the holy meeting place with God. And it enraged Jesus.
God is never pleased when we bring the values and morals of this world into his kingdom. They are dramatically antithetical. This world is me-centered. The kingdom of God is Christ centered. This world values the acquisition of position and prestige. The kingdom of God is about giving up your rights, dying to self and humbly serving others. This world applauds accumulating more and more of the things of this world for self-consumption. The kingdom of God is about giving what you have to meet the needs of others - including your life for the sake of Jesus.
Today, God doesn't dwell in a temple or buildings. God's temple is people - the body of Christ. Each believer is a sanctuary for God. As such, we must be discerning in what we allow in our lives and congregations. How easy it is to bring the world into his holy dwelling.
Many people believe that contemporary worship - with modern songs, guitars, drums and technology - brings worldliness into the church and dishonors God. Truth is, God loves all worship that offers him praise - be it pipe organs, Fender Strats, African djembe drums ... you name it - God loves it! (Wait 'til we see, hear and join God's worship team in heaven. They've been worshipping since the beginning of eternity.)
God loves worship (regardless of style) when we worship in spirit and truth, bringing into his presence the values and principles of his kingdom abiding in us and transmitted through us. There are no money changers or merchants selling sacrifices in our churches today, but we can still pollute our "father's house" just as they did (and the people allowed) by bringing selfish greed, gossip, back-biting, slander, un-forgiveness, judging others (and the list could go on) into our lives and congregations.
God deserves better than that. He longs for us to leave the world behind and quit straddling the fence between two kingdoms, and come into his holy presence as citizens and children of his kingdom.
